Prehensility

Prehensility is the quality of an appendage or organ that has adapted for

grasping or holding. The word is derived from the Latin term prehendere,
meaning "to grasp".

Examples
Appendages that can become prehensile include:

The hands of primates are all prehensile to varying degrees

Prehensile feet:

The claws of cats are prehensile.

The feet of passerine birds are prehensile
Prehensile tails – Many extant lizards have prehensile tails (geckos,
chameleons, and a species of skink). Seahorses grip seaweed with
their tails. Several fossil animals have been interpreted as having
prehensile tails, including several Late Triassic drepanosaurs,[1] and
possibly the Late Permian synapsid Suminia.[2]

Tongue – of giraffes in particular

Nose – elephants, tapirs
Lips – lake sturgeon, orangutans, horses and rhinos
Cephalopod arm – arms such as those of octopuses
A prehensile tail.
Upper lip, such as that of the West Indian manatee
Penises, such as that of the tapir[3]

Uses
Prehensility affords animals a great natural advantage in manipulating their
environment for feeding, digging, and defense. It enables many animals, such as
primates, to use tools to complete tasks that would otherwise be impossible
without highly specialized anatomy. For example, chimpanzees have the ability
to use sticks to obtain termites and grubs in a manner similar to human fishing.
However, not all prehensile organs are applied to tool use; the giraffe tongue, for
instance, is instead used in feeding and self-cleaning.

References Giraffe's prehensile tongue

1. Silvio Renesto, Justin A. Spielmann, Spencer G. Lucas, and Giorgio

Tarditi Spagnoli. (2010). The taxonomy and paleobiology of the Late Triassic (Carnian-Norian: Adamanian-
Apachean) drepanosaurs (Diapsida: Archosauromorpha: Drepanosauromorpha). New Mexico Museum of
Natural History and Science Bulletin. 46:1–81
2. Jörg Fröbisch and Robert R. Reisz. (2009). The Late Permian herbivore Suminia and the early evolution of
arboreality in terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Online First
doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0911 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frspb.2009.0911)
3. Andrew, Danielle (31 July 2015). "Watch A Tapir Scratch An Itch With His Enormous, Prehensile Penis" (http://ww
w.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/how-tapir-scratches-itch/). IFLScience. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
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This page was last edited on 9 September 2019, at 04:15 (UTC).

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